Gravity Falls Fanfiction Help
by crazyguitargirl
Summary: Confused about writing the characters of Gravity Falls? Have trouble with something specific? Tips, tricks, and hints about writing fanfictions for Gravity Falls. Have fun writing!
1. How to Get Started

So since I thought it'd probably be pretty helpful, I've decided to create a new story! The purpose, as you might guess or have guessed, is to help new authors, or anybody really, with writing Gravity Falls Fanfiction. Mostly this will be helpful little things and to keep characters in character.

I know that you might be wondering why I'd be doing it, because I'm sure there are more qualified authors that do Gravity Falls stuff. Keep in mind that these are mostly observations that I've made, not things I include in my stories personally (and I think I'd need the help, haha.) I'm not trying to be hypocritical if something that I miss in my stories gets put in this story. And I'm not trying to personally offend anybody if I put something in here that they think directly pertains to them. It's not like that, I swear!

To kick things off, I'm starting with an extremely basic one- Tips for Getting Started

**Develop It. A Lot.**

Launching right into a story can be exciting! But any author can tell you that you need to have an idea of where the story is going to go before you start, or at least before you get far enough in that you're going to need it. You can go chapter-by-chapter planning what will happen, or you can just write one long summary about the entire story. It doesn't matter how you do it- get the whole thing planned somehow.

**Edit. Edit. Edit.**

Alex Hirsch said it himself- don't just write something quickly and put it out there as 'finished'. I can't stress this strongly enough- _REVISE YOUR WORK_. If you rush through it, and post it as quickly as you can, it's not going to be _ready_ to be published, unless you're some sort of superhuman writing machine. You might be, I don't know. But quality will always outweigh quantity, so work on making your writing as good as it can be before publishing it.

**Format**

This might not seem very important, but it is. Spaces between paragraphs. New lines for speaking. Punctuation. Capitalization. Clarification about who's talking. If it's a real story, and not something meant to be silly, u sh0udnt tipe lk dis, its no+ ezy 2 red r undrstnd. And _grammar_. Grammar.

**Be Prepared.**

It's hard to write a chapter in twenty minutes to get it posted 'on time'. If you're posting chapters on a set schedule, then be ready to carry out that schedule. Always have the next chapter ready, and about two after that started. If you don't have time for that, it's not pressure; adjusting your updating is alright, and everybody is okay with it. Reviews saying 'update soon!' and 'can't wait for the next chapter!' are encouragements, not reminders if you're not ready.

**Keep Calm and Carry On.**

People read things. People review things. People type things in reviews. Not every review is completely positive. Don't be intimidated by them, you're doing great. A review count doesn't determine the quality of a story, so you shouldn't be discouraged if a story doesn't seem to be doing as good as you hoped. People are reading. And on the off chance that you'll receive a negative response, pay it little attention. Don't let it get to you. Remember that this is YOUR story, and you call the shots. Don't feel pressured.

**I hope you liked these tips; the chapters after these ones will be on writing certain characters, couples, situations, or universes. If there's something specific you want to see, you can PM me, or include it in a review. Have fun writing!**


	2. How to Write the Pines Twins

**How to Write the Pines Twins **

Note: This isn't a character chapter or a Pinecest tutorial. It's for the sibling relationship between the two.

**Understand How Dipper Thinks of Mabel**

Mabel's silliness can irritate Dipper while they're solving a case or in a sticky situation, and her eccentricity can be very unpleasant to him. Think of Irrational Treasure. Dipper was pushing Mabel to be more serious about the conspiracy, and he wasn't planning on taking her on the mission in the first place. Dipper is quite easily annoyed when things don't go the right way, though. He just doesn't have a filter, even when it comes to Mabel. At the end of that same episode, he did accept her silliness more than he did before, but still considers it to be unnecessary most of the time. He also appreciates her advice to keep things simple from Double Dipper.

**Understand How Mabel Thinks of Dipper**

Mabel is much more trusting overall than Dipper is, so she gets less annoyed that he isn't silly like her. Usually her prodding to help him is gentle, and she has a good-natured way of trying to get him do lighten up, while he is more forceful. While Mabel takes most petty troubles, bullying, and mild harm in stride, sometimes it amounts to too much and she can blow a fuse, whether it's getting angry or depressed (Boss Mabel, Irrational Treasure, THTRTM, Carpet Diem). In Carpet Diem, it's shown that some small things about Dipper that can annoy her are his reading and that he doesn't wash his clothes, but those are just frivolous things. In Little Dipper, Mabel shows that she sometimes feels inferior to Dipper because he's better than her at some things, and brags about it. She gets defensive when she's better than him, at anything really, because of this. She also can get angry or depressed when he puts his crush on Wendy before what she would consider more important (like getting the candy in Summerween, or helping Mermando get back to his family). Overall, because Dipper focuses on details and Mabel tries to find what is most important, this causes conflict between them.

**How They Work Together**

The Mystery Twins work best as a team. Just a reminder of that.

**Jealousy**

Alex Hirsch said in his AMA on Reddit a few months ago that each of the twins is jealous of what the other has that they don't. Mabel is jealous of Dipper's academic skills. Dipper is jealous of Mabel's people skills. This has come out a few times. For a Mabel example, she got jealous of Dipper's constant winning of chess, checkers, etc. (as shown in the Mabel category above). For a Dipper example, he got jealous that she was hanging out with Candy and Grenda because he didn't really know how to make his own friends. Remember that this only happens occasionally, though. Mabel's could have been a buildup of twelve years, and Dipper's as well (though it's unlikely that he didn't have any friends at all back home, they had been in GF for about a month if the time before that didn't count). They also get competitive, like in Carpet Diem. It's normal for siblings to want to feel better than the other. The reason that it takes so long for the green monster to show is because…

**Overall, They Love Each Other.**

Many siblings in television shows, books, movies, and other media have deeply rooted sibling problems. Dipper and Mabel do not. Alex also stated in that AMA that they don't hate each other, but conflict can arise between almost any two people. The twins are based off of Alex and Ariel, and if they hated each other, then Alex wouldn't have made a show meant to be their 'perfect summer' in the first place. Dipper and Mabel's sibling bond is why they work so well together, and if you're writing a fanfic set normally (meaning not where a fight breaks out or had broken out in the past and they now don't like each other), you should remember that.

**That's all for this week. If you have something that you want a guide for, include it in a review (or PM it to me for a better chance of it happening sooner). I'll get into bigger tutorials soon. Also if there's any tips you have, I'll publish a chapter every now and then made up of submitted tips. Okay, thanks for reading!**


	3. How to Write Gideon Gleeful

How to write Lil' Gideon

*Note: Most of these tips are for Pre-Gideon Rises, because not only are most stories set there, but it's more likely that Gideon would be an antagonist at that time.

**Understand His Powers**

For a pretty basic start, it's important to know what he can do. Gideon's amulet definitely gives him the power to levitate things and create/control fire. It's also very likely that he can read minds, or use mind control, but neither of these have actually been confirmed. If you want to headcannon him a few more powers, that's great, just remember that they come from the amulet. Without it, or the book, he is remotely powerless, other than his natural ability of convince others into doing his dirty work, control (via intimidation) of his parents, and his position where most of the citizens of Gravity Falls are absolutely charmed by him.

**Pre Gideon Rises vs. Post Gideon Rises**

In all of the episodes other than the season finale, Gideon had the entire town trusting him, a thriving magic act, and was free to do nearly whatever he wanted, at anyone's expense. Post the finale, he was seen as not only a fraud, but somebody who betrayed them. Since the cops and tourists are so sensitive to that, he was locked up, for probably a long time, and it's safe to think that his business shut down because of it. Also, if he were to get out of jail, the chances of the citizens forgiving him are slim.

**Relationships**

Gideon seems to not have any healthy relationships with anybody. He pretty much abuses his own parents (that's an exaggeration. He's driven his mother insane, but probably not through abuse. Also, they both know that he's more powerful, i.e. when he stated that he could buy and sell his father, Bud shrugged and stated that it was fair enough). Gideon and Stan have been business rivals for a fair amount of time before the twins showed up (he even had a dartboard with Stan's face on it) He didn't act out before the twins showed up because he didn't see Stan as being powerful at all, and had no reason for revenge since the Tent of Telepathy was far more popular than the shack. Mostly Stan had an annoyance and a small business rivalry with him. Not to state the obvious, but he is completely oblivious to the fact that Mabel hates him, and this causes him to have a strong loathing for Dipper, because he feels that's the only thing keeping them apart. He sees the townspeople as idiots, which they know after the finale, and only is using them to have people behind him, and image.

**Plausible/ Not Proven but Likely Theories**

His age isn't canon; mostly in fanon he's 9 years old.

He's just messed up. He's certainly an interesting character, and may have been kind of normal in the past, but as of now there's no good in him.

It's quite likely that the book has something to do with this, but in a Petrikov-y way (it's okay to not get the reference), he's so far gone that now he's evil even without it.

**Okay, that's all for today. I figured this might be helpful, because Gideon is a common antagonist.**


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